Maxime Deland, QMI Agency

MONTREAL — A hammer-wielding man shot by Montreal police downtown on Monday morning has died in hospital.

Witnesses say officers fired four shots near the city's main bus terminal around 11 a.m. after answering several 911 calls about a man who had assaulted another person.

Police say the first officers on the scene confronted a man in his 40s and called for backup.

Witnesses say a total of six officers surrounded the armed suspect, who refused orders to drop his hammer.

At one point he stood up on top of a police cruiser. Then he got down and brandished the weapon, a witness told QMI Agency. Police fired four shots and the man crumpled to the ground. Television news footage showed paramedics pumping on the suspect's chest while he was loaded into an ambulance.

The man, who was known to police, was transported to hospital in critical condition, where he was later pronounced dead.